Another great video! I really like this series. Of course, I think the people who most need to watch it wouldn't appreciate it, but that's no fault of yours.
Time is long. It's out there now, should they ever decide to come get a drink. Thanks for the comment. I didn't expect this series to be well received when I started it (hence the delay), but it's helped me find my footing for the tone of the channel and I'm excited to finish it.
I have been looking for that illustration of the “employer” greeting his new black “employees” dressed in finery on the DECK of a ship for two years! I thought I saved it after someone posted it, but was not able to find it! Thanks
Slavery has become the great red-herring to justify an imperialistic, deadly, destructive invasion of southern America. “Confederate generals fought for independence from the Union just as George Washington fought for independence from Great Britain. Those who label Robert E. Lee and other Confederate generals as traitors might also label George Washington a traitor. Great Britain's King George III and the British parliament would have agreed.” - Prof. Walter E. Williams, George Mason University
I was having a conversation about the Confederacy just today and was told that “there’s no way I could overlay our 21st Century morals and values on an 18th Century civilization. That's called "Presentism" and it won't work when Americans in 2172 look back at us with those morals and values and attempt to make judgements against us.” My response was “maybe you can’t, others can and what you can do is stop justifying those 18th century morals and values with such nonsense and celebrating those outdated moral and values. Correct me if I’m wrong but many in your Party suddenly have (at least on paper) objections to pedophiles, child sexual predators, child sex trafficking, etc. all of which were things the Confederacy was fighting to maintain with the institution of slavery. In 2172, they will be asking the same questions... specifically why America was the only country to ever celebrate a quashed insurrection with statues and monuments and heroic embellishment of events instead of the facts. And I’d agree with them. If the details of what transpired under the Confederacy were so great, why not just tell the whole unadulterated truth; warts and all and let the cards fall where they may? Does it really seem left-leaning to you for us to want the whole truth told?”
Great video as always! It's crazy how recent some of this stuff is. It's so easy to think that it all happened back in 18-something-or-other, but a lot of it (like those Virginia textbooks) is recent history.
It's amazing to see the impact on education to this day. There are UDC essay writing contests that are mandatory homework in a lot of places. TX is going to start teaching slavery as the cause of the Civil War THIS YEAR. Nevermind the monuments and the sheer amount of just completely made up stuff.
"slavery wasn't that bad"(a point mentioned)... I heard things got a lot worse once the slaves where freed. So maybe there's some truth there, kinda like communism isn't that bad, but when it fails millions starve. I'm not a historian so I'm being as unbiased as I can be as learn about this stuff. I won't assume being a slave is the worst thing ever, slaves can be treated well, and it makes sense to treat "property" well so that it will do a good job. But a cartoon vision of slavery is that, it's like being locked up and whipped everyday and not given enough food, like a prisoner, reality should be different.
OOF. Okay. I'm going to try to jump on this before you get eaten by other commenters. Couple things... Let's start with the basic premise of your comment: "slavery wasn't that bad" Some advice - never write that sentence if it isn't preceded by "And this other guy, who is not me, said...". I'm going to take your comment at face value and read this as an earnest expression of inquiry. You said: "I'm not a historian so I'm being as unbiased as I can be as learn about this stuff" It sounds like you're saying 'hey, I wasn't there and I'm not an expert on this stuff, so I'm not going to rush into any conclusions just because they're conventional wisdom", and frankly I respect that approach to things. Skepticism and keeping an open mind are - generally - great things to practice. You just didn't do that. You started this comment with a position ("slavery wasn't that bad"), not a question (EG "how do we know slavery was that bad?" or "how bad was slavery for the average slave?"). I'm glad you admit you're coming from a position of very few facts, but then why start with such a concrete conclusion? Why start with a conclusion at all? It's okay to say "I don't know". Asking questions is a good thing. Instead, you're starting from a conclusion, then explaining your logic while qualifying your credentials...that is not skepticism, that's justifying a current belief. THAT out of the way, how do we know slavery was bad? Because the slaves said so. I mean, shit, dude. There are COUNTLESS accounts of life during slavery that you can read. Instead you're repeating the talking points that justify the Lost Cause garbage that only seems to be true because it's been repeated so much (as I tried to demonstrate in this video). American enslaved persons were PEOPLE, you can ask THEM how it was. If you're basing your position on what a slave OWNER said, at best you'll get a rough guess from someone who was hopefully a benevolent dictator. Because that's the thing, slavery is bad because it's slavery. You don't have to be stabbing the people you own for the whole "owning people" thing to be a moral abomination. Further, this idea that "things got a lot worse once the slaves where [sic] freed" is nuts. Think about it, a bunch of former slave owners decided to be assholes to their formerly enslaved population...how the F#)$* is that somehow an argument FOR slavery? It's not an argument for anything other than that the reconstruction era South was cultural clusterfuck doing an extremely bad job dealing with its shit, and white, southern democrats were the #1 reason. This whole thing is like saying "I used to stab people in the arm, but people complained so I switched to shooting people in the leg, and now they complain MORE?!" And somehow thinking that's a valid argument that you should go back to stabbing people in the arm and not, you know, just be locked up for a long time so they can do neither. ANYWAY, I hope that makes some sense. I think you'll get some use out of this video: ruclips.net/video/IckHoMZszQE/видео.html It's mostly about whether or not there were black confederates, but it touches on the whole reason why even "benevolent slavery" is dogshit. I think the first two videos in this series might also help give you some historical context. Feel free to hit me up if you have questions. Best of luck.
@@ABetterQuestion So I believe your the guy in the video, you read from a confederate history book "slavery wasn't that bad". So again I have to wonder how life was for slaves in general, not just in America, but anywhere in history. I understand your shame tactic, it's important to show that in this tribal media environment. But it's makes me wonder. I've always seen depictions of slavery as the worst thing ever, on tv, shows, movies, etc, so I also know the general fear or distain people have to personally being inslaved, a fate worse than death, but I think slavery has happened throughout most of human civilization's history. So the statement "slavery wasn't that bad" makes me think. If your mad at me for emotional reasons or out of fear of tribe attacks, or the opportunity to be a hero in front of tribe, I have to ask do you know every account of every life of an inslaved person. I know as a natural understanding to have a bias against slaverly all together, but I think that might be something that's a rose colored lens. It makes sense to not treat slaves badly if you want to successfully use them, that's pure logic. You can paint every slave owner through out history as some cartoon character with an evil twisted smile constantly on their face, but logic happens more often than not. The most radical thoughts and ideas unfortunately are questions to seek truth.
@@AstroSquid From every historical source I've read that even touches the issue of slavery, you're not wrong - you're just more wrong than you are right. I'll try to explain. There are a few moving parts to your post - here they are as I see them: - not all slave owners were cruel asshats - in order for slaves to be “useful”, they must be well treated. Then there’s the delivery of your argument but we’ll get to that in a minute. The part you’re right about: No, not all slave owners were cruel asshats. In fact, there are many accounts of enslaved persons with fierce loyalty to their current and/or former owners - see the picture from the video I linked above. MOST days, MOST slaves did the work given to them with little conflict. The depictions of the brutality of slavery that we see in fiction is an example of what COULD happen, not a representative depiction of daily life (which is pretty much the definition of fiction). Brutality absolutely did happen, but I don’t just mean someone being whipped by a guy who looks like Colonel Sanders crossed with Snidely Whiplash. I’m talking about selling children away from their mothers. I’m talking about the constant horror that ANYTHING can be done to you because you are not a human - you have no rights. A man can destroy his own property….and occasionally I AM talking about whippings done by someone who was just employed to keep slaves in line. “Overseer” was not a rare job title in the antebellum south. That said, there were some laws that governed the treatment of slaves in parts of the South and again, MOST places, MOST days, probably didn’t see overt clashes between enslaved people and their captors.
And that’s it…. So….? I guess I’m not sure of the point you're making. There’s a loooooong way between “slavery, as it existed in the 1860s US, was not a constant parade of torture porn” and “slavery was not that bad”, never mind the reprehensible notion of owning another person in general. I think we probably agree, but If we’re not on the same page about that latter thing, I’m not sure I have the patience to explain why it’s super-duper wrong. Let’s move on to the whole idea that “ It makes sense to not treat slaves badly if you want to successfully use them”. I think the realistic and callous calculation here was “what’s the minimum I can get away with”. If you’re phrasing this as a logical and/or economic dilemma, then why not carry it to its end? In which case this hypothetical slave owner would spend as much thought on the well-being of his slaves as he would on the health and happiness of his cattle - that is to say: the minimum effective amount. Not to mention that calculation was likely equal parts carrot and threat-of-stick. Further, If someone believes a person is a subhuman whose temperament is one that loves labor and whose intellect makes them unable to make good choices for themselves, then that person might think they’re doing the enslaved person a favor by assigning them meaningless, routine tasks that involve more exertion and pain than any they’d assign to a hired hand - and think no more about separating an enslaved woman from her baby than they might at separating a cow from its calf. If slavery was somehow a desirable state, where did the ‘underground railroad’ come from? Why were Southern states constantly pissed off at northern states which refused to honor fugitive slave laws and return runaway “property”? As for other historical examples of slavery...yeah people can be shitty. But dude, “Slave” wasn’t a job you signed up for because it didn’t suck THAT bad. It has always, always been one of the worst things that could happen to you, and typically it only happened if you lost a war/battle. In those cases, YOUR life is over. Sure you’ll go on living, but you don’t get to decide anything anymore. The only choices you can make are within the bounds set for you by your owner. If you behave, maybe you’ll be a content pet, but disobey at your own peril. If you think there aren’t historical examples of slavery with ZERO regard for the welfare of the slaves, then there are a few examples from the 1940s you might want to look up (SEE: the Holocaust and Japanese POWs). In those examples the enslavers got plenty of work out of their captives, even while those captives died by the literal trainload. In any case, this whole thing isn’t a binary choice. It’s not ‘all slave owners were insane sadists’ OR ‘all slaves were fine and slavery was fine’. The reality is that slavery was uncommonly (but not rarely) brutal in overt ways, commonly brutal in its disregard for the humanity of the enslaved, never desirable over a non-threatening alternative (for the slave), and always ethically/morally reprehensible. Again, I think questioning the established narrative is generally a good thing. So kudos. But that’s the thing about questioning...it involves questions. Ask them. Go find answers. You’ll either come away from it with a better understanding of why the established narrative is the right one, or you’ll figure out some crazy shit and hopefully share it - but it’s the RESULT that matters. The act of questioning implies an active search for answers, it doesn’t mean just...having questions. You say “The most radical thoughts and ideas unfortunately are questions to seek truth.” ..yeah kinda, but again it’s the seeking that’s important, not just the questions. Rejecting the established narrative is not a virtue on its own. Finally, as for this: “If your mad at me for emotional reasons or out of fear of tribe attacks, or the opportunity to be a hero in front of tribe” A) I’m not mad at you. You don’t know me well enough to make me mad. B) something something “tribe attacks” something ‘hero”....*weary sigh* “Groupthink” and tribal dynamics is something I think about a lot - you can see the havoc they cause all over the place. I actually find the idea of crafting a response or a video just to get an “atta-boy” from the crowd to be a completely horrifying concept. I wouldn’t spend months doing research if that was the goal - it doesn’t take that kind of time to blurt out things people will agree with.
@@ABetterQuestion Everybody should watch me. I may not be flashy, super entertaining, or educational... But I'm proof that with dedication making money in financial markets isn't out of reach for regular people.
I like to point out the amusing part of all this where the losers were actually allowed to write the text books. And the even more amusing part where that was actually a bad thing.
There was an Ohio teacher that assigned PragerU videos as extra credit. The mother of one of the students recognized it as propaganda and spoke out about it. So, they're trying. And there's outreach with petitions, PREP (PragerU Resources for Edcuators and Parents), etc. Probably super helpful for conservatives educators.
@@rubberband22 Sheesh. I remember when I turned 30 - suddenly YT decided I loved Prager U videos and those were the only ads I saw for a while. They're hyper biased. Indoctrination is a scary beast. I'm glad someone flagged it.
Slowly (very)....positive change is occurring. I never thought in my lifetime Arlington National Cemetery would take down what has currently been labeled as the "reconciliation momument." Personally, I think all Confederate momuments (colonial criminals and historically known racist politicians) should be removed from public spaces and that no tax payer money should go for its maintenance.
@EuphoricImpact... in other words...you want the U.S to be like the Soviet Union and Just get rid of all of the War Monuments,And History You're too stupid to understand,Right?? Bravo...Spoken like a True Communist!
Excellent content. Can we all look forward to Ivanka and Jared's history of the last four years? As a side note about Lee's horse - that statue showed the unfortunate horse with his face pulled in toward his chest and his mouth gaped open in pain due to a leveraged bit and a taut rein. Don't know if Lee actually rode this way, but if he did, the horse had nothing to do with walking upright or knowing he was carrying a great man. He was just avoiding a lot of pain in a tender mouth.
Very informative. This is Why I laugh inside whenever I hear Americans bragging about their good grades in "school" ....or how many degrees they have. Based upon a curriculum of Lies and delusions.
I mean, it's weird to brag about high school grades past high school... But the curriculum is the thing..we don't even have a set curriculum. I'm sure it's excellent in some places. ...in Georgia from 1910 to 1985...not so much.
I was floored to see so many of the same tactics that get used today - albeit not always with the same motivations. I'm hoping at some point we come far enough to admit how much further we have to go.
@@ABetterQuestion nothing funny at all, just can't think of too many schools even in the deep south in the last 15 years that has more than 2 or 3 days of civil war history let alone discuss the confederacy enough to tell "lies". Anyway not that it matters I work with a military state park and a guest told me about this particular video in reference to a group discussion that was being had, so I was just prodding the maker about the title, please excuse me if it upset.
@@westtnskirmishlog6820 No upset at all (and holy shit someone mentioned this video at a historical site?! I'm blown away). I'm curious what you do in your work, I haven't had the chance to visit any sites like that (at least in the eastern half of the US, I have in MT, but different history/conflict). I'd love to know how that conversation went, and I'd be happy to send you the references and sources I dug up if you'd like. As for the context of this video, it only has a few, scattered modern examples of gross inaccuracies. Most of this took place 1890 to sometime in the mid 1970s. For me it was a great help in understanding why we're still where we are as a country - that people were still learning the tenets of neo-confederates nearly 100 years after the fact. I was blown away by the thorough infiltration and control of the whole systems, and saw parallels with the methodology used to push narratives even today. Not to mention the vestiges of the Lost Cause mythos that are still around, I mean, there's still a friggin' Rutherford Hall at the UofG. It can be a huge effort to track down primary sources (especially with no resources of my own to spend on the task), but with things that are this contentious I prefer to show not tell. Even so, it's interesting how many comments and messages I get telling me it didn't happen. Humans are wired to prefer identity over reality, so none of this is surprising, I'm just not always sure how to respond when someone says X thing doesn't exist 5 mins after I literally put X thing on the screen. I have to say, I don't say "lies" lightly. I don't know how else to characterize deliberately saying something that isn't true. This whole scheme was a well organized (and successful) effort to insert Confederate narratives into schools with the expressed intention of showing the South/Confederacy in a positive light - not an accurate one. Don't get me wrong, just because I'm calling out this instance of systemic revisionist history, I'm not saying it's the only one that's ever happened. It's just the one that falls within the scope of this series. I appreciate the comment. Let me know if there's anything else you're curious about (or, honestly, anything you have a problem with - I'm all for disagreements as long as we're both up for acknowledging the evidence. People can look at the same thing and have a differing perspective, but we still have to be looking at the same thing...or...you know...have our eyes open in the first place). Cheers.
@@ABetterQuestion not in a professional capacity no sir. No, myself and 4 others are just taking an hour or so in the evenings and looking at the sources posted, as there is a person with a similar POV sceduled to meet in a week to present they're findings. Sorry been very busy, I'll be sure and comment back soon as I get these other people's input as, they make their living primarily teaching and interpreting civil war and some Mexican war history.
I think you are making this as someone who hasn’t lived in the Deep South. I grew up in New York but did live in the Deep South and then truth is honestly somewhere in the middle of both sides accounts.
There was no good side in that war. Today we're NOT taught -Corwin amendment and Lincolns support of it -Far more native Americans fought for the CSA (last confederate general to surrender was a native) -J.Davis asked for a trial after he was arrested in 1865, but never got one (because secession was 100% legal in 1860) -Fort Sumter casualties=0, they gave the union soldiers advance notice of the bombing. And let entire garrison leave the next day (even gave them full military honors )
I agree with your initial premise, but there was definitely a bad side - or more wrong anyway. Which also is irrelevant. The thing is, the premise of this video is not "how everyone besides the confederacy were saints". Nor was this a moral equivalency exercise about what might be just as bad. You can have a conversation about the holocaust without bringing up FDR's internment of American Japanese. You could discuss them together too, it's just a different conversation. I'm also fully aware of the notice that was given at Sumter, I mention it in the first episode in this series. Calling in a bomb threat beforehand is different than just blowing up a building with no notice - I'll give you that. Either way you're a person who's blowing up buildings though. So...what's your point? It's fine to teach kids insane things about slavery? Or the CSA was just misunderstood or something? Because something something habeas corpus, Lincoln something GRANT HAD A SLAVE! That probably wasn't your point. Also, you're not wrong. But when you come into a discussion about some not-well-known-yet-extensively-horrible thing that happened, and then you change the subject to some...other...stuff...it tends to look like you're trying to deflect from the topic at hand. Especially when the topic at hand is how a bunch of racist people used moral equivalency, omission, and subject changes as tools to further an agenda that continually reopens this huge wound in our society. I'm hoping you can see how the optics of this might lead someone to mistakenly assume your comment is an attempt to justify all of that. But I don't see how someone could think omitting that native Americans fought for the CSA, instead of the US Army, is somehow equivalent to failing to teach the cause of the War in the first place, or that slavery is bad. So probably you were just sharing some trivia you wanted to contribute. In which case, thank you. Also, I hope my warning about optics was helpful so that you can avoid a horrible misunderstanding in the future.
Sadly I don't live there anymore. I hope you enjoy your time in the state though - it's an odd place but it can be wonderful too. If you want to chat more, feel free to send me an email bettquest@ gmail
Just watched all your video's. I am sure you will go far doing this. Could I suggest a few things. Don't focus too much on America, there is a lot of viewers from other countries and for most of us its irrelevant or boring. Your science stuff was great, give us more! Change your background. The long silence when the question mark comes on screen is weird. Keep up the honesty it makes you more relatable and more believable.
hahaha I hear you. I love you folks tuning in from overseas ...which might be the most archaic way to put that. Thank you so much for your feedback. Right now I'm trying to juggle priorities for channel improvement. The background is static for now because it's the one place I can shoot in a 500sq. ft. apartment. That said, you're right on about it needing a change. I'll give it some more thought. This current series - the monuments - is wrapping up soon - one more to go! I didn't realize what I was diving into when I started to investigate the debate around removing Confederate Monuments. I thought I could do it in one video - ah silly naïve me from 6 months ago. This is such a sensitive topic that I want to erase all doubt before I come to a conclusion. I also wanted to provide a resource for anyone taking part in this debate. It's so easy to end up in an "agree to disagree" deadlock - which is fine with two differing opinions, but not when someone's facts are wrong. So hey, here are the facts - primary sources and all. I just didn't realize how all of this connected to the bedrock of Americas sustained and chronic racial divide. ....F#*%. I want to work on different content too. I also want to cover this current topic the highest degree that my abilities and perspective will allow - that takes time. Thank you (and everyone not from the US or not super interested in this topic) for sticking with the channel in the interim. And thank you for your comment about honesty. Trust is a resource you gain slowly and can lose instantly. If I have to bend the truth to include something in a video, I'm not going to include it. I'm definitely going to screw up occasionally, but putting more BS into the world is not what this is about. If you're still reading at the end of this huge comment, I'd love to hear any topic suggestions you have. Hell, if you have an interesting topic from wherever you live, feel free to suggest that too. We Americans could benefit from some time in the audience instead of on stage.
That only makes sense if womens' legal rights (of the times) matched their ability - which they did not. Just because women were legally ineligible to vote and/or hold property outside of marriage (depending on state), that doesn't mean women didn't find a way to do things. People are clever after all, and it turns out women are people so... Anyway, since we have proof of laws restraining womens' rights in the same years we have proof of Mildred's signed works, letters, speeches, etc. - it turns out we did have it both ways. Which is stupid, but true.
Yeah alright, I'll bite. I'd like to avoid being unfair to anyone, and I'd definitely rather not make inaccurate claims. So, if it's not too much trouble, I have questions: - Did you have a specific section or fact that you found to be wrong or unfair? - Biased against whom? - Incorrect where/how? What part did I get wrong? Can you point me at accurate information so I can make changes? I hope you'll understand that I get similar comments a lot. Most of the time the problem is that the information I've presented doesn't line up with the commenter's current understanding of reality. The sources aren't wrong, they can't point me at contradictory information, they cant provide evidence that refutes what I've said - often because the sources I'm using are the personal documents of the people I'm discussing (it's THEIR words, not mine). They're typically unable to find a factual objection, but they're still certain something isn't right. In short, they don't like it - the objection is emotional, not factual. A negative reaction is completely understandable - having your views contradicted suuucks. But maybe this time I'll have to be the one to suck it up and shift my views to accommodate new information. I'm looking forward to your reply.
Neither "side" was 100% Right in their views & BOTH engaged in slavery. Read Lincoln's statements....ALL OF THEM. Since it's your video, you can do more research. I don't engage in debates. Best wishes.
@@dianneg4873 First off, thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm trying to understand: how are Lincoln's statements relevant here? I'm also still unsure what you meant when you said the "video is...incorrect". What about?
1. Who started a war? 2. States govern by themselves, but not by the Congress is a bad thing? 3. How much do you pay taxes now in free America without slavery? :)
1) A war? Lots of people... The Civil War? The Confederacy started it. 2) Wat? Look up "federalism". Actually, here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States 3) I pay quite a bit in taxes, I also drive on roads and attend a public university. Are you implying that slavery was good because "something, something, low taxes"?
@@jonathanm1758 1. Lincoln declared a war against Independent South. :) 2. Why do you send me a link for federal rule? The Confederacy lost, no more self governing. The winners rewrote the history. :) There were around 75.000 black Confederates, most of them were free. 3. You are slaving away with taxes nowadays as the result of dictatorship from North that crashed a right for the people to decide for themselves on what they need. You are free, not a slave, right? Try not to pay high taxes. :) Strangely enough there were roads before implemented taxation. You are funny. Did you born to pay taxes to your Master? Is that a purpose of your life? :)
Imagine trying to back pedal so hard you have to rewrite history.
Nothing says "I F#$&ed up" like screaming "I'VE ALWAYS BEEN RIGHT!"
Imagine being better informed prior to every conclusion you make about anything...
@@ABetterQuestion I like that your are consistent in your facile, yet complex viewpoint.
@@ABetterQuestion CRT right.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Oh sure, the war was fought over slavery only. What a joke! LMAO
Im researching for a play, and truly... Thank you for your accuracy by continuing to reference your findings, and witty delivery.
Thank you!
Let me know if you need some source material help.
This is still going on. My coworker is 20. The history he was taught is shocking. Straight up lies.
Remember how Huey Dewey and Loey are all Five Star Generals in the Junior Woodchucks?
Another great video! I really like this series. Of course, I think the people who most need to watch it wouldn't appreciate it, but that's no fault of yours.
Time is long. It's out there now, should they ever decide to come get a drink.
Thanks for the comment. I didn't expect this series to be well received when I started it (hence the delay), but it's helped me find my footing for the tone of the channel and I'm excited to finish it.
I have been looking for that illustration of the “employer” greeting his new black “employees” dressed in finery on the DECK of a ship for two years! I thought I saved it after someone posted it, but was not able to find it! Thanks
Slavery has become the great red-herring to justify an imperialistic, deadly, destructive invasion of southern America.
“Confederate generals fought for independence from the Union just as George Washington fought for independence from Great Britain. Those who label Robert E. Lee and other Confederate generals as traitors might also label George Washington a traitor. Great Britain's King George III and the British parliament would have agreed.”
- Prof. Walter E. Williams, George Mason University
@monumentsacrossdixie...You're Exactly Right! Thats How Stupid this Guy who wrote this us!!
Thank you for this very informative video
New subscriber...thanks for the info bro 😎
THANK YOU for including all your sources. This is graduate thesis level work, yeah?
Lol I mean, I found and read a bunch of those.
I was having a conversation about the Confederacy just today and was told that “there’s no way I could overlay our 21st Century morals and values on an 18th Century civilization. That's called "Presentism" and it won't work when Americans in 2172 look back at us with those morals and values and attempt to make judgements against us.”
My response was “maybe you can’t, others can and what you can do is stop justifying those 18th century morals and values with such nonsense and celebrating those outdated moral and values.
Correct me if I’m wrong but many in your Party suddenly have (at least on paper) objections to pedophiles, child sexual predators, child sex trafficking, etc. all of which were things the Confederacy was fighting to maintain with the institution of slavery.
In 2172, they will be asking the same questions... specifically why America was the only country to ever celebrate a quashed insurrection with statues and monuments and heroic embellishment of events instead of the facts.
And I’d agree with them. If the details of what transpired under the Confederacy were so great, why not just tell the whole unadulterated truth; warts and all and let the cards fall where they may? Does it really seem left-leaning to you for us to want the whole truth told?”
STATES RIGHTS!!!!! *insert baby tantrum emoji*
😂😂😂😂
Great video as always! It's crazy how recent some of this stuff is. It's so easy to think that it all happened back in 18-something-or-other, but a lot of it (like those Virginia textbooks) is recent history.
It's amazing to see the impact on education to this day. There are UDC essay writing contests that are mandatory homework in a lot of places. TX is going to start teaching slavery as the cause of the Civil War THIS YEAR. Nevermind the monuments and the sheer amount of just completely made up stuff.
There was still segregation in TX schools in the 80s.
It's still going on now. History talks with my young southern coworker is alarming.
Thank you for making this video
"slavery wasn't that bad"(a point mentioned)... I heard things got a lot worse once the slaves where freed. So maybe there's some truth there, kinda like communism isn't that bad, but when it fails millions starve. I'm not a historian so I'm being as unbiased as I can be as learn about this stuff. I won't assume being a slave is the worst thing ever, slaves can be treated well, and it makes sense to treat "property" well so that it will do a good job. But a cartoon vision of slavery is that, it's like being locked up and whipped everyday and not given enough food, like a prisoner, reality should be different.
OOF.
Okay. I'm going to try to jump on this before you get eaten by other commenters. Couple things...
Let's start with the basic premise of your comment:
"slavery wasn't that bad"
Some advice - never write that sentence if it isn't preceded by "And this other guy, who is not me, said...".
I'm going to take your comment at face value and read this as an earnest expression of inquiry. You said:
"I'm not a historian so I'm being as unbiased as I can be as learn about this stuff"
It sounds like you're saying 'hey, I wasn't there and I'm not an expert on this stuff, so I'm not going to rush into any conclusions just because they're conventional wisdom", and frankly I respect that approach to things. Skepticism and keeping an open mind are - generally - great things to practice.
You just didn't do that.
You started this comment with a position ("slavery wasn't that bad"), not a question (EG "how do we know slavery was that bad?" or "how bad was slavery for the average slave?"). I'm glad you admit you're coming from a position of very few facts, but then why start with such a concrete conclusion? Why start with a conclusion at all? It's okay to say "I don't know". Asking questions is a good thing.
Instead, you're starting from a conclusion, then explaining your logic while qualifying your credentials...that is not skepticism, that's justifying a current belief.
THAT out of the way, how do we know slavery was bad? Because the slaves said so.
I mean, shit, dude. There are COUNTLESS accounts of life during slavery that you can read. Instead you're repeating the talking points that justify the Lost Cause garbage that only seems to be true because it's been repeated so much (as I tried to demonstrate in this video). American enslaved persons were PEOPLE, you can ask THEM how it was. If you're basing your position on what a slave OWNER said, at best you'll get a rough guess from someone who was hopefully a benevolent dictator.
Because that's the thing, slavery is bad because it's slavery. You don't have to be stabbing the people you own for the whole "owning people" thing to be a moral abomination. Further, this idea that "things got a lot worse once the slaves where [sic] freed" is nuts. Think about it, a bunch of former slave owners decided to be assholes to their formerly enslaved population...how the F#)$* is that somehow an argument FOR slavery? It's not an argument for anything other than that the reconstruction era South was cultural clusterfuck doing an extremely bad job dealing with its shit, and white, southern democrats were the #1 reason.
This whole thing is like saying
"I used to stab people in the arm, but people complained so I switched to shooting people in the leg, and now they complain MORE?!"
And somehow thinking that's a valid argument that you should go back to stabbing people in the arm and not, you know, just be locked up for a long time so they can do neither.
ANYWAY, I hope that makes some sense. I think you'll get some use out of this video:
ruclips.net/video/IckHoMZszQE/видео.html
It's mostly about whether or not there were black confederates, but it touches on the whole reason why even "benevolent slavery" is dogshit. I think the first two videos in this series might also help give you some historical context. Feel free to hit me up if you have questions.
Best of luck.
@@ABetterQuestion So I believe your the guy in the video, you read from a confederate history book "slavery wasn't that bad". So again I have to wonder how life was for slaves in general, not just in America, but anywhere in history. I understand your shame tactic, it's important to show that in this tribal media environment. But it's makes me wonder. I've always seen depictions of slavery as the worst thing ever, on tv, shows, movies, etc, so I also know the general fear or distain people have to personally being inslaved, a fate worse than death, but I think slavery has happened throughout most of human civilization's history. So the statement "slavery wasn't that bad" makes me think. If your mad at me for emotional reasons or out of fear of tribe attacks, or the opportunity to be a hero in front of tribe, I have to ask do you know every account of every life of an inslaved person. I know as a natural understanding to have a bias against slaverly all together, but I think that might be something that's a rose colored lens. It makes sense to not treat slaves badly if you want to successfully use them, that's pure logic. You can paint every slave owner through out history as some cartoon character with an evil twisted smile constantly on their face, but logic happens more often than not. The most radical thoughts and ideas unfortunately are questions to seek truth.
@@AstroSquid
From every historical source I've read that even touches the issue of slavery, you're not wrong - you're just more wrong than you are right. I'll try to explain.
There are a few moving parts to your post - here they are as I see them:
- not all slave owners were cruel asshats
- in order for slaves to be “useful”, they must be well treated.
Then there’s the delivery of your argument but we’ll get to that in a minute.
The part you’re right about:
No, not all slave owners were cruel asshats. In fact, there are many accounts of enslaved persons with fierce loyalty to their current and/or former owners - see the picture from the video I linked above. MOST days, MOST slaves did the work given to them with little conflict. The depictions of the brutality of slavery that we see in fiction is an example of what COULD happen, not a representative depiction of daily life (which is pretty much the definition of fiction). Brutality absolutely did happen, but I don’t just mean someone being whipped by a guy who looks like Colonel Sanders crossed with Snidely Whiplash. I’m talking about selling children away from their mothers. I’m talking about the constant horror that ANYTHING can be done to you because you are not a human - you have no rights. A man can destroy his own property….and occasionally I AM talking about whippings done by someone who was just employed to keep slaves in line. “Overseer” was not a rare job title in the antebellum south.
That said, there were some laws that governed the treatment of slaves in parts of the South and again, MOST places, MOST days, probably didn’t see overt clashes between enslaved people and their captors.
And that’s it….
So….?
I guess I’m not sure of the point you're making. There’s a loooooong way between “slavery, as it existed in the 1860s US, was not a constant parade of torture porn” and “slavery was not that bad”, never mind the reprehensible notion of owning another person in general. I think we probably agree, but If we’re not on the same page about that latter thing, I’m not sure I have the patience to explain why it’s super-duper wrong.
Let’s move on to the whole idea that “ It makes sense to not treat slaves badly if you want to successfully use them”.
I think the realistic and callous calculation here was “what’s the minimum I can get away with”. If you’re phrasing this as a logical and/or economic dilemma, then why not carry it to its end? In which case this hypothetical slave owner would spend as much thought on the well-being of his slaves as he would on the health and happiness of his cattle - that is to say: the minimum effective amount. Not to mention that calculation was likely equal parts carrot and threat-of-stick.
Further, If someone believes a person is a subhuman whose temperament is one that loves labor and whose intellect makes them unable to make good choices for themselves, then that person might think they’re doing the enslaved person a favor by assigning them meaningless, routine tasks that involve more exertion and pain than any they’d assign to a hired hand - and think no more about separating an enslaved woman from her baby than they might at separating a cow from its calf.
If slavery was somehow a desirable state, where did the ‘underground railroad’ come from? Why were Southern states constantly pissed off at northern states which refused to honor fugitive slave laws and return runaway “property”?
As for other historical examples of slavery...yeah people can be shitty. But dude, “Slave” wasn’t a job you signed up for because it didn’t suck THAT bad. It has always, always been one of the worst things that could happen to you, and typically it only happened if you lost a war/battle. In those cases, YOUR life is over. Sure you’ll go on living, but you don’t get to decide anything anymore. The only choices you can make are within the bounds set for you by your owner. If you behave, maybe you’ll be a content pet, but disobey at your own peril.
If you think there aren’t historical examples of slavery with ZERO regard for the welfare of the slaves, then there are a few examples from the 1940s you might want to look up (SEE: the Holocaust and Japanese POWs). In those examples the enslavers got plenty of work out of their captives, even while those captives died by the literal trainload.
In any case, this whole thing isn’t a binary choice. It’s not ‘all slave owners were insane sadists’ OR ‘all slaves were fine and slavery was fine’. The reality is that slavery was uncommonly (but not rarely) brutal in overt ways, commonly brutal in its disregard for the humanity of the enslaved, never desirable over a non-threatening alternative (for the slave), and always ethically/morally reprehensible.
Again, I think questioning the established narrative is generally a good thing. So kudos. But that’s the thing about questioning...it involves questions. Ask them. Go find answers. You’ll either come away from it with a better understanding of why the established narrative is the right one, or you’ll figure out some crazy shit and hopefully share it - but it’s the RESULT that matters. The act of questioning implies an active search for answers, it doesn’t mean just...having questions.
You say “The most radical thoughts and ideas unfortunately are questions to seek truth.”
..yeah kinda, but again it’s the seeking that’s important, not just the questions. Rejecting the established narrative is not a virtue on its own.
Finally, as for this:
“If your mad at me for emotional reasons or out of fear of tribe attacks, or the opportunity to be a hero in front of tribe”
A) I’m not mad at you. You don’t know me well enough to make me mad.
B) something something “tribe attacks” something ‘hero”....*weary sigh*
“Groupthink” and tribal dynamics is something I think about a lot - you can see the havoc they cause all over the place. I actually find the idea of crafting a response or a video just to get an “atta-boy” from the crowd to be a completely horrifying concept. I wouldn’t spend months doing research if that was the goal - it doesn’t take that kind of time to blurt out things people will agree with.
Sweet vid, "blackmail me for my no money" had me rolling.
Maybe I should watch your channel see if I can remedy the situation.
@@ABetterQuestion Everybody should watch me. I may not be flashy, super entertaining, or educational... But I'm proof that with dedication making money in financial markets isn't out of reach for regular people.
The textbooks at the end explain a lot about a certain generation of people in America. The people that grew up reading those books.
If slavery is not wrong, why would its defenders deny their ancestors seceded because of it?
Still rather succeed than put up with this current country.
I like to point out the amusing part of all this where the losers were actually allowed to write the text books.
And the even more amusing part where that was actually a bad thing.
This should be shown in US schools, not PragerU vids.
Good God, tell me Prager U crap isn't shown in schools...
There was an Ohio teacher that assigned PragerU videos as extra credit. The mother of one of the students recognized it as propaganda and spoke out about it. So, they're trying. And there's outreach with petitions, PREP (PragerU Resources for Edcuators and Parents), etc. Probably super helpful for conservatives educators.
@@rubberband22 Sheesh.
I remember when I turned 30 - suddenly YT decided I loved Prager U videos and those were the only ads I saw for a while. They're hyper biased.
Indoctrination is a scary beast. I'm glad someone flagged it.
Slowly (very)....positive change is occurring.
I never thought in my lifetime Arlington National Cemetery would take down what has currently been labeled as the "reconciliation momument."
Personally, I think all Confederate momuments (colonial criminals and historically known racist politicians) should be removed from public spaces and that no tax payer money should go for its maintenance.
@EuphoricImpact... in other words...you want the U.S to be like the Soviet Union and Just get rid of all of the War Monuments,And History You're too stupid to understand,Right?? Bravo...Spoken like a True Communist!
Cool, do you think those statues should be replaced with crackheads and communist black supremacists? Because that’s what’s happening.
Good delivery
I appreciate you saying so. Thanks for watching!
That is the original critical race theory...along with birth of a nation.
Outstanding video with a great side monologue.
Excellent content. Can we all look forward to Ivanka and Jared's history of the last four years? As a side note about Lee's horse - that statue showed the unfortunate horse with his face pulled in toward his chest and his mouth gaped open in pain due to a leveraged bit and a taut rein. Don't know if Lee actually rode this way, but if he did, the horse had nothing to do with walking upright or knowing he was carrying a great man. He was just avoiding a lot of pain in a tender mouth.
Aww, poor Traveler.
Great work. Keep it up, the world needs videos like these
Very informative. This is Why I laugh inside whenever I hear Americans bragging about their good grades in "school" ....or how many degrees they have. Based upon a curriculum of Lies and delusions.
I mean, it's weird to brag about high school grades past high school...
But the curriculum is the thing..we don't even have a set curriculum. I'm sure it's excellent in some places.
...in Georgia from 1910 to 1985...not so much.
This was very informative I learned soo much more about how shity America is
I was floored to see so many of the same tactics that get used today - albeit not always with the same motivations.
I'm hoping at some point we come far enough to admit how much further we have to go.
These are great. Hope the algorithm shows this to more people
This is amazing content
I love you too!
hello nice to meet you
Hello 😊
Quality research and brilliant presentation as always, sir.
Wow I'm still laughing at the title. Whatever makes you feel accomplished.
By all means feel free to explain the joke, maybe I missed something with all the primary sources and months of research.
@@ABetterQuestion nothing funny at all, just can't think of too many schools even in the deep south in the last 15 years that has more than 2 or 3 days of civil war history let alone discuss the confederacy enough to tell "lies". Anyway not that it matters I work with a military state park and a guest told me about this particular video in reference to a group discussion that was being had, so I was just prodding the maker about the title, please excuse me if it upset.
@@westtnskirmishlog6820
No upset at all (and holy shit someone mentioned this video at a historical site?! I'm blown away). I'm curious what you do in your work, I haven't had the chance to visit any sites like that (at least in the eastern half of the US, I have in MT, but different history/conflict). I'd love to know how that conversation went, and I'd be happy to send you the references and sources I dug up if you'd like.
As for the context of this video, it only has a few, scattered modern examples of gross inaccuracies. Most of this took place 1890 to sometime in the mid 1970s. For me it was a great help in understanding why we're still where we are as a country - that people were still learning the tenets of neo-confederates nearly 100 years after the fact. I was blown away by the thorough infiltration and control of the whole systems, and saw parallels with the methodology used to push narratives even today. Not to mention the vestiges of the Lost Cause mythos that are still around, I mean, there's still a friggin' Rutherford Hall at the UofG.
It can be a huge effort to track down primary sources (especially with no resources of my own to spend on the task), but with things that are this contentious I prefer to show not tell. Even so, it's interesting how many comments and messages I get telling me it didn't happen. Humans are wired to prefer identity over reality, so none of this is surprising, I'm just not always sure how to respond when someone says X thing doesn't exist 5 mins after I literally put X thing on the screen.
I have to say, I don't say "lies" lightly. I don't know how else to characterize deliberately saying something that isn't true. This whole scheme was a well organized (and successful) effort to insert Confederate narratives into schools with the expressed intention of showing the South/Confederacy in a positive light - not an accurate one. Don't get me wrong, just because I'm calling out this instance of systemic revisionist history, I'm not saying it's the only one that's ever happened. It's just the one that falls within the scope of this series.
I appreciate the comment. Let me know if there's anything else you're curious about (or, honestly, anything you have a problem with - I'm all for disagreements as long as we're both up for acknowledging the evidence. People can look at the same thing and have a differing perspective, but we still have to be looking at the same thing...or...you know...have our eyes open in the first place).
Cheers.
@@ABetterQuestion not in a professional capacity no sir. No, myself and 4 others are just taking an hour or so in the evenings and looking at the sources posted, as there is a person with a similar POV sceduled to meet in a week to present they're findings. Sorry been very busy, I'll be sure and comment back soon as I get these other people's input as, they make their living primarily teaching and interpreting civil war and some Mexican war history.
I think you are making this as someone who hasn’t lived in the Deep South. I grew up in New York but did live in the Deep South and then truth is honestly somewhere in the middle of both sides accounts.
There was no good side in that war. Today we're NOT taught
-Corwin amendment and Lincolns support of it
-Far more native Americans fought for the CSA (last confederate general to surrender was a native)
-J.Davis asked for a trial after he was arrested in 1865, but never got one (because secession was 100% legal in 1860)
-Fort Sumter casualties=0, they gave the union soldiers advance notice of the bombing. And let entire garrison leave the next day (even gave them full military honors )
I agree with your initial premise, but there was definitely a bad side - or more wrong anyway. Which also is irrelevant.
The thing is, the premise of this video is not "how everyone besides the confederacy were saints". Nor was this a moral equivalency exercise about what might be just as bad. You can have a conversation about the holocaust without bringing up FDR's internment of American Japanese. You could discuss them together too, it's just a different conversation.
I'm also fully aware of the notice that was given at Sumter, I mention it in the first episode in this series. Calling in a bomb threat beforehand is different than just blowing up a building with no notice - I'll give you that. Either way you're a person who's blowing up buildings though.
So...what's your point?
It's fine to teach kids insane things about slavery? Or the CSA was just misunderstood or something? Because something something habeas corpus, Lincoln something GRANT HAD A SLAVE!
That probably wasn't your point. Also, you're not wrong.
But when you come into a discussion about some not-well-known-yet-extensively-horrible thing that happened, and then you change the subject to some...other...stuff...it tends to look like you're trying to deflect from the topic at hand.
Especially when the topic at hand is how a bunch of racist people used moral equivalency, omission, and subject changes as tools to further an agenda that continually reopens this huge wound in our society.
I'm hoping you can see how the optics of this might lead someone to mistakenly assume your comment is an attempt to justify all of that.
But I don't see how someone could think omitting that native Americans fought for the CSA, instead of the US Army, is somehow equivalent to failing to teach the cause of the War in the first place, or that slavery is bad.
So probably you were just sharing some trivia you wanted to contribute. In which case, thank you. Also, I hope my warning about optics was helpful so that you can avoid a horrible misunderstanding in the future.
@barrysorento3572... You're talking too high over this clown's head!
Hey I'm moving to Montana on Monday. If I get a camera can I be your videographer? I'll do it for free just to get some networking in the state
Sadly I don't live there anymore. I hope you enjoy your time in the state though - it's an odd place but it can be wonderful too.
If you want to chat more, feel free to send me an email bettquest@ gmail
Just watched all your video's. I am sure you will go far doing this. Could I suggest a few things.
Don't focus too much on America, there is a lot of viewers from other countries and for most of us its irrelevant or boring.
Your science stuff was great, give us more! Change your background. The long silence when the question mark comes on screen is weird.
Keep up the honesty it makes you more relatable and more believable.
hahaha I hear you.
I love you folks tuning in from overseas ...which might be the most archaic way to put that.
Thank you so much for your feedback. Right now I'm trying to juggle priorities for channel improvement. The background is static for now because it's the one place I can shoot in a 500sq. ft. apartment. That said, you're right on about it needing a change. I'll give it some more thought.
This current series - the monuments - is wrapping up soon - one more to go! I didn't realize what I was diving into when I started to investigate the debate around removing Confederate Monuments. I thought I could do it in one video - ah silly naïve me from 6 months ago.
This is such a sensitive topic that I want to erase all doubt before I come to a conclusion. I also wanted to provide a resource for anyone taking part in this debate. It's so easy to end up in an "agree to disagree" deadlock - which is fine with two differing opinions, but not when someone's facts are wrong. So hey, here are the facts - primary sources and all.
I just didn't realize how all of this connected to the bedrock of Americas sustained and chronic racial divide. ....F#*%.
I want to work on different content too. I also want to cover this current topic the highest degree that my abilities and perspective will allow - that takes time. Thank you (and everyone not from the US or not super interested in this topic) for sticking with the channel in the interim.
And thank you for your comment about honesty. Trust is a resource you gain slowly and can lose instantly. If I have to bend the truth to include something in a video, I'm not going to include it. I'm definitely going to screw up occasionally, but putting more BS into the world is not what this is about.
If you're still reading at the end of this huge comment, I'd love to hear any topic suggestions you have. Hell, if you have an interesting topic from wherever you live, feel free to suggest that too. We Americans could benefit from some time in the audience instead of on stage.
Good vid
Corwin Amendment
I can't believe these textbooks are full with y'all's lies and people still make videos like this on RUclips its sad.
I thought women (including Mildred) didn’t have any agency back then though? Can’t have it both ways
That only makes sense if womens' legal rights (of the times) matched their ability - which they did not.
Just because women were legally ineligible to vote and/or hold property outside of marriage (depending on state), that doesn't mean women didn't find a way to do things. People are clever after all, and it turns out women are people so...
Anyway, since we have proof of laws restraining womens' rights in the same years we have proof of Mildred's signed works, letters, speeches, etc. - it turns out we did have it both ways. Which is stupid, but true.
💩🧠
There’s plenty of slave narratives of ex slaves talking about how good their life was as ‘slaves’.
These narratives were well edited. Plus, blacks learned not to complain about bad treatment by whites.
Your video is biased & incorrect.
Yeah alright, I'll bite. I'd like to avoid being unfair to anyone, and I'd definitely rather not make inaccurate claims. So, if it's not too much trouble, I have questions:
- Did you have a specific section or fact that you found to be wrong or unfair?
- Biased against whom?
- Incorrect where/how? What part did I get wrong? Can you point me at accurate information so I can make changes?
I hope you'll understand that I get similar comments a lot. Most of the time the problem is that the information I've presented doesn't line up with the commenter's current understanding of reality. The sources aren't wrong, they can't point me at contradictory information, they cant provide evidence that refutes what I've said - often because the sources I'm using are the personal documents of the people I'm discussing (it's THEIR words, not mine). They're typically unable to find a factual objection, but they're still certain something isn't right.
In short, they don't like it - the objection is emotional, not factual. A negative reaction is completely understandable - having your views contradicted suuucks.
But maybe this time I'll have to be the one to suck it up and shift my views to accommodate new information. I'm looking forward to your reply.
Neither "side" was 100%
Right in their views & BOTH engaged in slavery. Read Lincoln's statements....ALL OF THEM. Since it's your video, you can do more research. I don't engage in debates. Best wishes.
@@dianneg4873 First off, thank you for taking the time to reply.
I'm trying to understand: how are Lincoln's statements relevant here?
I'm also still unsure what you meant when you said the "video is...incorrect". What about?
Which part was incorrect?
1. Who started a war?
2. States govern by themselves, but not by the Congress is a bad thing?
3. How much do you pay taxes now in free America without slavery? :)
1) A war? Lots of people... The Civil War? The Confederacy started it.
2) Wat? Look up "federalism". Actually, here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States
3) I pay quite a bit in taxes, I also drive on roads and attend a public university. Are you implying that slavery was good because "something, something, low taxes"?
@@jonathanm1758 1. Lincoln declared a war against Independent South. :)
2. Why do you send me a link for federal rule? The Confederacy lost, no more self governing. The winners rewrote the history. :) There were around 75.000 black Confederates, most of them were free.
3. You are slaving away with taxes nowadays as the result of dictatorship from North that crashed a right for the people to decide for themselves on what they need. You are free, not a slave, right? Try not to pay high taxes. :) Strangely enough there were roads before implemented taxation. You are funny. Did you born to pay taxes to your Master? Is that a purpose of your life? :)